Belle and I ran this weekend at the QCDC NADAC trial. Despite the time change, I think Sunday was our better day. On Saturday, I just seemed to keep saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. The first run of the day was Chances, and I just totally blew that one in my walk-through analysis. I'll be doing a separate post about the Chances course. In the two regular classes, our first A-frame was iffy and the second wasn't a two stride hit. Belle's A-frames were much better in Touch n Go.
On the first Regular run, there was an A-frame/tunnel discrimination. I wanted to make sure Belle was looking at the A-frame so I used her name. Unfortunately, she was already headed right for it when I said "A-frame.....Belle" instead of "Belle, A-frame." Additionally, I dropped my arm as I said "Belle" and like a good girl she went into handler focus and came straight to me.
On our jumpers run, I opened my mouth and said "out" when clearly, I should have just kept it shut. In Hoopers, I thought I failed to save the run by saying "hoop" when I meant "tunnel." After editing the video, Belle was pretty much on her way to that "hoop" and nothing I said would have stopped her at that point. To get to the second tunnel, the handler had to indicate to her dog before she entered the first tunnel or while she was in there that a sharp turn was a-coming.
After these various misspeaks on Saturday, I resolved to keep my verbals to a minimum on Sunday. Unfortunately, that decision bit me in the butt in Chances--I'll be doing a separate post on Sunday's Chances course, also. I decided to use only "hit it" to indicate the A-frame on Sunday, and that seemed to make a difference. I thought Belle's two A-frames in Regular were much closer to being true running A-frames. I was also very pleased to see the improvement in her dog walk. We haven't worked a whole lot on driving into the 2o2o because I was concentrating on the A-frame. When we did work on it, I noticed it messed with Belle's mind in regard to what was expected on the A-frame--after working on the dog walk, she would offer a 2o2o on the A-frame.
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